The two main roles deserve the highest praise. Michael Hendrick embodies a fragile and poignant Paul… the valor and timbre are those of a Heldentenor.

Nancy
National Opera of Lorraine
05/09/2010 – and 12, 14*, 16, 18 May 2010
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Die tote Stadt
Michael Hendrick (Paul), Helena Juntunen (Marietta), Thomas Oliemans (Franck), Nadine Weissmann (Brigitta), André Morsch (Fritz), André Post (Victorin, Gaston), Yuree Jang (Juliette), Aurore Ugolin (Lucienne), Alexander Swan (Count Albert)
Choir of the Opéra national de Lorraine, Les Mirabelles children’s choir, Nancy Symphony and Lyric Orchestra, Daniel Klajner (musical direction)
Philipp Himmelmann (director), Raimund Bauer (sets), Bettina Walter (costumes), Gérard Cleven (lighting), Martin Eidenberg (video)

Would La Ville Morte (1920) finally enter the major repertoire in France? Eight months after its reappearance in Paris, which had not seen it since the stage premiere in France in 2001 (only!), the Opéra national de Lorraine is carrying out a new production to also mark with a white stone.

Philipp Himmelmann has apparently gained the trust of the house since he recently directed The Rose Knight and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. His first collaboration with Raimund Bauer, who designed the sets (superbly lit by Gérard Cleven), led to a striking visual, more dreamlike than fantastic and based on clever mirror effects and, above all, multiplication. Paul’s living room, summarized as an armchair and a floor lamp, is reproduced identically in up to six copies on two levels, which gives this initially disconcerting scenography the appearance of a chessboard. As they never appear together in a box, the singers are therefore faced with a double challenge: interacting in perfect synchronization with their partner without seeing him while assuming the difficulties of their part. Thus Paul never meets Marietta in whom he sees his deceased wife, everything being only the fruit of his imagination from the start. Reinforcing the emotion of this compact show, and taking place without an intermission, a giant portrait of Marie, who comes to life in the first scene, covers the entire back of the stage. A somewhat scoundrel party in the following painting sets a striking contrast with the intense poetry which dominates this in-depth reading of this masterstroke by a twenty-three-year-old Korngold.

The Nancy Symphony and Lyric Orchestra is on point and persuasive in this virtuoso and explosive score which summons, as everyone knows, Strauss, Puccini and even Stravinsky and Zemlinsky. Daniel Klajner avoids saturation, measures the power and nuances the dynamics which ensures the transparency of the polyphony and preserves the voices, subjected to severe tests but enhanced by lyrical writing as desired. Alongside the very good Franck by Thomas Oliemans, Brigitta by Nadine Weissmann and Fritz by André Morsch – an excellent serenade in the middle scene – the two main roles deserve the highest praise. Michael Hendrick embodies a fragile and poignant Paul: no doubt he restricts his expressive register too much but the valor and timbre are indeed those of a Heldentenor. For Marietta, the choice also pays off: Helena Juntunen also has the build required to counter the forces emanating from the pit. Tease, luscious, with a sensuality sometimes flirting with vulgarity, the soprano misses no opportunity to spread her shapely legs in impulses worthy of those of a Salomé but no vocal flaw spoils her composition.

Under the leadership of Laurent Spielmann for almost ten years, the Opéra national de Lorraine has given pride of place to less popular works: encouraged by this dazzling success, will it have the audacity to defend Violanta, Der Ring des Polykrates , Das Wunder der Heliane and Die Kathrin?

http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=6551

by Sebastien Foucart

Concertonet.com